When the Words Must Be Written: Heartbeat of Africa

Creative insights can be fleeting. Pay attention. Words can sometimes call clearly to be written in the dark of the night, but may have disappeared by the morning.

I wrote one of my favorite poems because the words insisted, and I listened, and acted. It was as if my mother stood next to me, gently shaking my shoulder, telling me to awaken, like she did when I was in grade school. I sat up, and said “what?!” out loud to the darkness.

The thoughts and words continued to insist, so I got up, grabbed pen and paper, stumbled to the next room, and wrote the words exactly as they sit today in "Heartbeat of Africa." Then I went back to bed. Thank goodness I listened … and acted.

It was two weeks after I had learned that my marriage was ending. My emotions and feelings ran deep and with such intensity that it scared me. And I wrote of an experience in Africa nearly a year and a half earlier.

Heartbeat of Africa

I lay my body on her bosom Naked skin to naked earth. Her heartbeat, her primal energy, Enveloped my being And drew me into her warmth, Her mystery, her timelessness In the land where time began And will never end, Unchanged For a thousand years or more. And I, forever changed, With the Heartbeat of Africa Within my soul, And calling to me still.

~ Christina Solstad

I am eternally grateful I did not let this one slip away.

That is how creativity can grab you and you must pay attention, or it will fly away again.

Do I always grab those moments now, with my pen and paper? No, I’ve let many get away, somehow believing, in my grogginess, that they will sit clearly in my mind in the morning’s light.

How many times has your muse awakened you? How many times have you acted on it? Keep pen and paper with you always – and use it. Yes, those words may come back – and then again, they may simply disappear with the night.